Rachel Toor's Training

I met Rachel when she came to Furman University in September 2010, to speak to my "Running & Being" seminar and to deliver a public lecture on her book, Personal Best. Minutes after we began chatting, I realized how highly she values spontaneity and what disdain she has for conformity. Not exactly traits that would seem to fit with the FIRST training approach. Just as apparent, however, was a streak of stubbornness that attached to her writing, a compulsion to choose the "right" word or compose a sentence devoid of excess and exactly conveying her meaning. She had a passion for writing, but also seemed driven to become a better runner. I decided to invite her to come to a FIRST training retreat.

Rachel had to listen to FIRST's prescriptive methods over the course of three and a half days as well as complete a VO2 max assessment, a gait analysis and body composition measurement. She learned that the underlying concept of the FIRST training approach is quality over quantity. Most runners measure their training by the number of miles run, rather than how those miles were run. The FIRST program's structure requires three high-quality runs each week plus two cross-training workouts designed to improve endurance, lactate-threshold running pace, and leg speed. For each run, FIRST prescribes paces and distances that are based on a runner's current level of running fitness.

At the retreat's conclusion, Rachel asked if I would be willing to coach her. I had doubts about whether she could tolerate the structure, but was intrigued to see just how much she could improve. Her numbers during the testing phase of the FIRST retreat weren't great, but I felt she had potential. Additionally, I thought her dogged commitment to tasks might just cause her to accept the demands of the program.

In our post-test assessment, I told Rachel that her VO2 max of 45 ml/kg/min was excellent for her age, but I would have expected it to be a little higher, given her running history. Her running speed (8:34/mile) at lactate threshold was also slower than expected. However, that might be explained by Rachel's admission that her training during the winter was minimal and lacked focus. She did have an excellent body composition, with only 16.1 percent fat.

Rachel said that her goal was to run well at Spokane's Lilac Bloomsday 12K. I recommended she follow the 10K training program in Run Less, Run Faster. Based on her lab assessment and two running workouts at the retreat, we began her training program using a 23:10 5K time to represent her current fitness level and to choose her training paces for the track repeats, tempo and long runs. I knew that she didn't like the cross-training recommended as part of the FIRST training program and learned that coaching Rachel required frequent modifications to her training schedule to incorporate her spontaneous insertion of an arduous hike, long trail run or even a horse race into the weekly workouts that I sent her.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by Rachel's rapid improvement over the next six weeks. While her fitness levels from the lab results were below expectation, her ability to continue the tests beyond levels of lactate and carbon dioxide production that normally result in exhaustion indicated that she was an overachieving competitor. Her weekly training paces steadily dropped and were regularly a little faster than the target times in the pacing tables. For example, her long tempo target pace for a 6-mile training run dropped from 8:14/mile pace to 7:37/mile pace. Rachel is one of the fortunate high responders to training and is eager to work hard, which is why I agreed to coach her and was willing to be flexible with workouts that included her self-designed mile repeats around the dog park and an occasional "unsanctioned dog run."

When Rachel wanted to start training for the Windermere Marathon right after Bloomsday, I insisted that she use the two weeks prior to the marathon to recover from her outstanding Bloomsday 12K, run at a 7:23/mile pace. Her 3:39 marathon was a terrific performance, given that she hadn't done the long runs that are part of marathon training. Rested legs and an improved level of fitness as a result of the intense Bloomsday training, coupled with her ultrarunning history, enabled her to run well in the marathon. Still, it wasn't as high-quality as her 12K. While I liked that Rachel was excited about racing again, when she wanted to do the Missoula Marathon in early July I didn't think it was a good idea. There was no reason, without extended training, that she could expect to run a faster marathon. I pushed for the half marathon and she reluctantly, but respectfully, agreed. After Rachel spent several weeks recovering from the Windermere Marathon and her frequent travels, we settled on a training regimen that included, along with the intervals and tempo runs, hard efforts of 12 to 15 miles. We used a training program that targeted a half marathon finishing time of 1:42, or 7:47/mile pace. I realize that she made a few modifications, but those four weeks of training prior to the Missoula Half Marathon, outlined below, prepared her well.

Rachel's half marathon finish time of 1:41:26--an average pace slightly over 7:44/mile--gave us a good measure of her fitness going forward. We began using that baseline for determining her training for a fall marathon. I told Rachel to get ready for some longer tempo runs and faster long runs.

After six weeks of marathon training, Rachel returned to Greenville for a laboratory reassessment. Her diligent training resulted in a 5 percent improvement of important physiological components, maximal aerobic capacity and lactate threshold. Her VO2 max increased from 45 to 47.3 ml/kg/min and her lactate threshold running velocity dropped from 8:34/mile pace to 7:42/mile pace. Going to the track regularly for interval training, doing tempo runs of 3 to 6 miles and long runs of 13 to 20 miles contributed to a raised fitness level, and her lean body composition dropped to 12 percent body fat. All of her training times have improved since June, along with her laboratory measures.

I think Rachel's success with the FIRST program, even as we modified it to adapt to her resistance to formal cross-training, demonstrates how effective the practice of stressing a system and then allowing for recovery can be in increasing performance. Rachel's spontaneous divergence from the planned workouts during July is a reflection of her enthusiasm for what she considers play. Those activities she occasionally substitutes for the workouts might not be optimal; however, they satisfy her desire to engage in diverse physical efforts while still improving her fitness. Regardless, at the beginning of August, I pulled on the reins and asked for a three-month commitment to follow a planned program with focused training. She has been remarkably compliant.

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